Posts Tagged ‘Rochester Americans’

Friday’s 5-2 loss to the Comets was disappointing on many levels. The roster lacked the forward depth to allow Rochester to compete for a full 60 minutes. In what has developed into a common trend for the Amerks, there was almost no physical play. Nick Baptiste was the one bright spot tonight. He was on a mission to make things happen and looked by far the best player on the ice for the Americans. His silky smooth mitts have now netted him 9 goals and 3 Assists in just 11 games at the AHL level.

Tyson Strachan improved upon many things from Wednesday night’s performance. He needed to be more physical in front of the net, turn the puck over less, and be more efficient starting the breakout. From the very beginning of the game he made significant strides. He was very conservative passing in the zone and sent every thing up the boards. Also, he did a much better job clearing players from the front of the net and keeping their stick off the ice. Unfortunately Strachan’s night ended prematurely. He took a shot directly in the face at the twelve minute mark in the [...]Read More

Unlike Eric I’m a relatively green Amerks fan. While Eric has admirably supported the team for more than 3 decades I’ve spent less than a decade as a fan. I discovered the Amerks after moving to Rochester for college and I only became a season ticket holder in 2011. My interest in the team coincided with the discovery of accounting discrepancies involving then team owner Steve Donner. Countless changes resulted. An awkward dual affiliation with the Florida Panthers was signed along side the existing Buffalo Sabres affiliation. This dual affiliation coupled with continued financial woes resulted in the loss of the Buffalo Sabres affiliation. The Amerks were sold. The new owner, Curt Styres, bailed the team out of its financial situation and negotiated with the city of Rochester to keep the team in Rochester. The future looked brighter…for a moment. The lack of a local affiliation and the turmoil in ownership eroded the fan base. Moral among everyone–fans, players, and staff–was at an all time low. Even for a newer fan like myself the change in attitude was evident everywhere…from the parking garage to the arena. The eroding fan base led to an increase in promotions. So [...]Read More

After a second frustrating trade deadline in a row, Eric Bourgeois and Jason Bonno discuss the Amerk playoff roster (who’s on it, who is not), playoff chances……..and Darcy Regier.

Kevin Porter

Eric: He was clearly very important to the team in many ways as its captain and is sorely missed. Good for him in getting NHL time, but I think he would have cleared waivers so that he could have played with us in the playoffs.

Jason: This was a tough blow to the Amerks. Porter’s speed and puck possession were elite at the AHL level, and are two things the Amerks severely lack currently. He was the backbone of the Amerks forwards. Beyond his offensive abilities, he was also responsible defensively and was a key PK’er. I can’t say 100%, but my guess is he would have cleared waivers. His 1-way deal next season was a nice security blanket and probably would have scared off teams from claiming him.

Cody Hodgson and Marcus Foligno

Eric: I’m okay with considering them “graduated” and therefore not eligible for the playoffs here, but boy does the Buffalo organization need some playoff experience for its young players. And it’s not like Hodgson [...]Read More

I think it’s safe to say that just about every hockey player, fan and anyone in the media has HockeyDB set as one of their bookmarks or can type the name of the site faster than just about any other site. A few professional hockey players are trying to take a piece of that pie by developing an app for our smartphones with an expected release date before the season starts.

The project involves former Rochester Americans defensemen Kyle Hagel (a whopping 3 games), Dustin Sprout and Cam MacIntyre. Kyle Hagel reached out to me over the weekend to help spread the word and ask for feedback from others.

Here’s the description given about the application:

Shnarped is an iPhone application – created by three players that have recently played in the AHL – that will aggregate information (stats, news/blogs, videos, twitter) about all professional hockey players onto a player page. Players will have access to these profiles and will be able to customize them with unique content. It [...]Read More

At the start of every season most publications try and predict the season ending standings, something I would never want the task of doing. I decided to take a look back at the The Hockey News predictions for the 2011/2012 season compared to the final standings and for the most part they were way off. This is absolutely nothing against The Hockey News or our awesome local reporter who picked them, just wanted to look back. It’s almost impossible to predict how 30 teams will finish when their lineup in September will likely be completely different once the season starts and throughout.

I don’t think anyone could have predicted the Norfolk Admirals of all teams to win their last 28 games of the regular season for a historic finish. The list could go on but since I had posted the predictions back in October I thought I’d see how the results were.

Every season the morning of the American Hockey League All-Star Game the media gathers in a room with AHL President Dave Andrews to discuss the state of the league. Some seasons there’s a lot to talk about with teams in financial troubles, team movement or affiliation changes but there really wasn’t any of that this year. It was a short 40 minute meeting.

Here’s a quick run down of topics discussed:

You can also listen to the audio:

For the past few years it’s seemed like a struggle behind the scenes to find a host city for the All-Star game but going forward they expect to announce next years city in the coming weeks and even have plans for years going forward. Ted Black had mentioned recently that they’d love to see the game back in Rochester but next year will NOT be the year. It’s something the Amerks would like to host again at some point. There’s a lot of time and money that goes into hosting the event which is why AHL cities aren’t exactly begging for the game. Not every team has a large office staff to handle the logistics. The need for a sponsor is also [...]Read More

The Hockey News has published it’s preview of the American Hockey League’s 2011/2012 season and the Rochester Americans are ranked 4th in the West and based on those predictions would win the North Division. The rankings were put together by the D&C’s Kevin Oklobzija.

Thanks to Admirals Roundtable for the rankings. Looking back at the 2010/2011 rankings Ryan from Admirals Roundtable wrote this:

– The Calder Cup finalists were ranked 16th and 27th overall. – The division winners were ranked 19th, 3rd, 14th, and 18th. – Four of their top 10 didn’t make the playoffs (Chicago, Worcester, San Antonio, Grand Rapids)

It’s that time of year where everyone makes predictions just because it’s the thing to do. Everyone knows (or should know) that a season can change in a matter of weeks due to injuries, call ups, trades and even a group of players not living up to their expectations.

Here it is, all of game 7 from 1996 broken into three parts. Those of you who were there will relive the night, the rest of us get to be jealous and dream of the day the War Memorial is packed wall to wall again for some exciting playoff hockey. The three parts combined are close to three hours in length. After you watch these if you’d like to see the RNews special that aired about the 1996 season you can see that here.

This is one of those cases where the videos speak for themselves, no need to write anything else. Sit back and enjoy!

Part 1/3.. Pre game show, first period and first intermission:

Part 2/3.. Second period and second intermission:

Part 3/3.. Third period and cup celebration:

Enjoy and share! Also, thanks to @TheSchlag for letting me borrow these videos to get them online!

In 1995 the Rochester Americans home opener was October 13. They went on to win the 1996 Calder Cup. In 2011 the Amerks home opener is October 13th. A championship isn’t won off of one date but given hockey superstitions can’t hurt to point it out. The Amerks defeated the Portland Pirates in seven games to win the Calder Cup on home ice on June 13, 1996, a day that is still clear as day for many fans.

What would happen during that season though was unclear. Steve Donner had purchased the Rochester Americans from the Buffalo Sabres and rebuilt the team into what they thought would be a winner and it turned out to be just that.

“The seeds of the Calder Cup were planted in the ruins of the previous year,” is said early on in the video.

“They tried to see if a talented development team would work here and I think the answer has been a resounding no,” Steve Donner said. “They’ve recognized that and given us a chance to change the equation to help their needs and help us for the future.”

Sounds familiar doesn’t it? A development team with expected talent rarely wins championships. [...]Read More

Curt Styres selling the Rochester Americans franchise to Terry Pegula of the Buffalo Sabres has been as much of a secret as Terry Pegula buying the Sabres earlier this year. Everyone has known it’s happening, the only thing that held things up was all of the legal mumbo jumbo and league approval, two things that were guaranteed to happen. That’s the same thing that has been happening with the sale of the Amerks to the Sabres.

All indications point to the paperwork being finalized and the only thing remaining is approval of the American Hockey League Board of Governors that will be meeting early next week in Hilton Head. Is there any reason the league would not approve this sale? Of course not. Everyone knows the Amerks need it for long term health of the franchise and the AHL could use one of it’s oldest teams back at the top of their game.

I’m pretty confident others will have all of the details (costs, negotiations, fate of the Amerks front office etc) before I do but it’s safe to say this deal is complete, every i has a dot and every t is crossed.

The Florida Panthers booked Victor Oreskovich and Keaton Ellerby on a plane this morning to join the team in St Louis to increase the recent callups from the Rochester Americans to five players. Earlier in the week Kenndal McArdle, Michal Repik, and Jeff Taffe were called up.

Ellerby was called up to play in place of Bryan Allen who has not played consecutive nights as he recovers from his knee surgery. No idea if Allen is ever going to be 100% to play consecutive games this season. Keaton has been playing some great hockey lately, possibly his best since turning pro. He’s skating fast and smooth and controlling the puck as well. He’s stopping shots and clearing the puck without turning it over.

Oreskovich being called up was a bit of a surprise. He’s a great player and you’d never know watching him that he took two years off. Oreskovich had two assists in Saturday nights Amerks 4-2 win over the Binghamton Senators. He’s a hard hitting player who has great control of the puck once it’s on his stick.

No idea at this time who he’s being called up to replace, but it’s obvious the [...]Read More

The Amerks came into Friday night riding a seven game winning streak that started back on October 12th, two days after they were pretty much destroyed by Albany. When they left Binghamton on Friday night the Amerks extended the winning streak to eight games, the longest since early 2005.

A big concern coming into tonights game would be how the Amerks would do without Jeff Taffe, Michal Repik, and Kenndal McArdle out of the lineup. By the end of the first period it was clear this team was going to do just fine.

Once the final buzzer sounded it was great to see the team gather in their own end and congratulate each other. It was not a wild celebration in the oppositions barn but a way for all of them to say to each other great game. It’s still very early in the season but stay tuned, the chemistry in this team could be something special.

Just getting home from the trip, here’s my recap from the game:

The worst part of the game was early in the first when the Amerks were unable to do anything when they had a four minute power play [...]Read More